Ink bleeding, shadowing...help!

[ocean502]

I recently replaced my cut carriage cable and while printer was taken apart, I wasn't able to complete job in a day so it sat unplugged for a few days. I am getting bleeding, smudging, shadowing around the print. See pictured. I used a cleaning swab and kept it on the heads for a few minutes, performed a medium head cleaning, maintenance cleaning, wipers are squeeky clean, printed in high quality and still getting the bleeding look. Thanks for any advice. Printer is a SP-540V

 

[Andy D]

Hard to tell, the photo needs to be closer and bigger...

 

[Andy D]

From what I can tell, it's not overspray because it's all the way around the copy.
Have you tried running in uni direction or turning off some of your heads?

 

[Solventinkjet]

How does your nozzle check look? The first thing I check in these cases is if the nozzles are deflecting after sitting for a while.

If the nozzle check looks good, the hazy cyan around the print indicates an electrical problem. Since you were working on the machine I would suspect that during the install one of the cables was knocked loose or something else caused a short in the system. Check all of the cables again and look for ones that may be not plugged in all the way or have burn marks on them. If they are burned, there could be damage to the main board and the heads. You could do a data swap to see if the problem moves to another color. If it does, then the issue is along the Cyan channel's electrical path. If the problem stays with the cyan, the head is most likely fried.

The other thing it may be is that while you were working on the cable you brushed against the encoder strip a bunch of times and made it dirty or damaged. Inspect it closely and clean with IPA if needed.

 

[ocean502]

This is closer with more colors.

 

[Andy D]

VanderJ is obviously much more knowledgeable about this, so you should take his advice over mine, but
it looks like it's a cable data error on some of your heads, meaning some are printing correctly and some are freaking out and printing
all over the place. I would run the prints with only one head on at a time to see how it changes the prints.

 

[ocean502]

The shadowing is consistent. When I soaked the head with the swab the dark blue ink got better, the green lettering is smudging the same around every letter. I am so tired of seeing the insides of my machine lately. I will figure out how to do that and try it. Thanks.

 

[Gino]

Is it very dry in your room ?? It starting to look like static.

 

[Andy D]

I don't know your particular printer but you should be able to do
that via the setting

 

[ocean502]

Is it very dry in your room ?? It starting to look like static.

I would say it's the opposite. It actually RAINED in California! It felt a little humid yesterday, and is when I started printing again.

 

[J Hill Designs]

I see a bunch of deflected nozzles

 

[Andy D]

I see a bunch of deflected nozzles

Could be, but I never get much over spray top and bottom of the copy, plus that overspray is way
larger than I have ever seen on deflected nozzles....

 

[Bretbyron]

You can see the deflected nozzles in the test print. Some go high, some go low and some go left or right. Overnight head soak maybe.

 

[Triggerhappy]

Two questions for you, and my opinion

- what kind of ink are you using?
- how many drops do the heads have/how old are they

two separate problems:
- nozzles are not printing where they should, if after cleanings does not recover the heads need to be changed.
- lacking a better expression, gas like ink over spraying around the contour of the print is not because of the deflective nozzles. It has to do with the electronics of the head. it`s a rare defect, solution is to change the heads.
Probably not the answers you hoped for, sorry for that.
Cheers

 

[ocean502]

I did a test print through Versaworks and the print came out perfect, so I printed with CMYK instead of RGB and the print came out perfect! So confused.

 

[splizaat]

Static...that doesn't seem like deflection....the overspray is super far from the print itself. The deflection would have to be spraying all the way into the second color in the test print.

If it prints fine in one rip and not another go back to basics:

1. Is it ALL your prints or just the one file you're having issues with?
2. Are you sending this as a JPG? Pdf? Eps? and have you tried resaving in another format and printing that way?
3. Try turning off printer, and leaving unplugged from the actual wall power outlet for an hour or two. Then plug it back in and try printing. Sometimes we had to do that on our SP and it released whatever static charge was left.